Rumble Merger Clears Final Hurdle as Northern Data Shareholders Face Tight Deadline

Rumble secures 77% of Northern Data shares after UAE approval, with fixed exchange ratio and Tether as anchor tenant for GPU services.

The regulatory path for Rumble Inc.'s acquisition of Northern Data AG is now completely clear. The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Economy issued the last required approval on April 29, 2026, removing the final obstacle to what will be one of the more notable cross-border deals in the AI infrastructure space this year.

Shareholder response has been robust. As of May 4, investors not bound by transaction support agreements had already tendered 16 percent of their shares. When combined with those already committed under contract, Rumble now has roughly 77 percent of all outstanding Northern Data stock locked in. There is no minimum acceptance threshold for the deal to proceed.

The exchange terms remain fixed. Each Northern Data share will convert into 2.0281 newly issued Class A common shares of Rumble. Both the management board and supervisory board have unanimously recommended the offer, with no sweetener on the table — Rumble has explicitly stated it will not raise the exchange ratio.

Countdown to Closure

The initial acceptance period expires on May 9, 2026, at 6:01 a.m. Central European Summer Time. Shareholders routing their tenders through banks or brokers should factor in earlier internal cutoffs. A secondary offering window is expected to open around May 15 and run through June 1, after which the deal becomes irrevocable.

Once the transaction closes, Northern Data shares will be promptly delisted from the over-the-counter market. The company has no plans for a separate buyback offer, meaning shareholders who hold on risk ending up with illiquid securities trading at opaque prices.

Strategic Assets and a Major Customer

The combined entity will bring together video, cloud computing and AI under one roof. Northern Data contributes its Taiga Cloud division, which operates a large European GPU cluster, along with eight data centers under development globally. Those facilities are targeting 250 megawatts of capacity by 2027.

Rumble gains immediate infrastructure scale, and the deal already has an anchor tenant. Tether, the stablecoin issuer, has committed to purchasing GPU services worth $150 million over two years following the merger.

Northern Data shares closed at €12.51 on Tuesday, roughly 50 percent above their April low but still about 47 percent in the red on a 12-month basis. The stock remains well below its 52-week high of €28.92, reflecting how much ground the company still needs to regain in investor confidence even as the merger clears its final regulatory gate.